The CIA has carried out more than 1,000 undeclared flights over European territory since 2001, European parliament investigators said today. Politicians scrutinising illegal CIA activities in Europe also said incidents in which terror suspects were handed over to US agents did not appear to be isolated, and suspects were often transported in the same planes and by the same groups of people. The preliminary report was compiled using data provided by the EU's air safety agency, Eurocontrol. It also used information gathered during three months of hearings and more than 50 hours of testimony by human rights groups and people who said they had been kidnapped and tortured by US agents. Data showed CIA planes made numerous undeclared stopovers on European territory, violating an international air treaty requiring airlines to declare the routes and stopovers for planes on police missions, the Italian politician Giovanni Claudio Fava, who drafted the report, said. ... http://www.guardian.co.uk

A right-wing pundit who once urged President Bush to "stop cowering under the bed and start fighting back" was introduced today as the new White House press secretary. Tony Snow, a Fox News commentator who used to work as a speechwriter for the first President Bush, replaces Scott McClellan as part of a drive to re-energise Mr Bush's team for his second term after a series of political disasters that have seen his poll ratings plummet.Ahead of the appointment, American liberals have had a field day digging up some of Mr Snow's criticisms of the President, notably over his failure to rein in spending.Introducing Mr Snow to the White House press corps, Mr Bush said: "For those of you who’ve read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, ‘You should have heard what I said about the other guy."’...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2152398,00.html

President Bush's top two national security officials made a surprise visit to Iraq Wednesday, showing support for the emerging government as the top U.S. military commander there said some U.S. troops may be able to leave in the months ahead. Army Gen. George Casey said Iraq's selection of top government leaders marked a major step toward creating conditions that could allow a partial withdrawal. "I'm still on my general timeline," Casey told reporters after meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who arrived unannounced for a daylong series of meetings with top U.S. commanders and the newly selected Iraqi leaders. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew separately in from Turkey a few hours later to shore up the U.S. show of support. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1891986&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Defense ministers from China, Russia and four Central Asian nations agreed to hold joint anti-terrorism drills next year as they gathered Wednesday to discuss regional security, including the threat from Islamic militancy. Armed forces from the six nations will stage the military exercise in Russian territory, near the Ural Mountains in an area abutting Central Asia, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters after the meeting. Air forces and precision-guided weapons would likely be featured he said. The joint exercise, if held, would be the largest staged by the six-nation grouping, known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The group, which got its informal start a decade ago but was formally launched five years ago, was founded to build confidence among the member nations and grapple with militant Islamic groups. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1892049

Sales of new homes rose a much larger-than-expected 13.8% in March, the biggest one-month gain since April 1993, but prices fell sharply, a government report showed Wednesday.The pace of new-home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.213 million unit annual rate from a downwardly revised 1.066 million unit rate in February, the Commerce Department said.Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting home sales to rise to a 1.1 million unit pace in March.Despite gains, the new-home sales report showed signs the housing market has slowed from peak levels. The median home price slipped 2.2% from a year earlier to $224,200, the first year-over-year decline since December 2003, the Commerce Department said. Also, the March sales pace was down 7.2% from March 2005....http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2006-04-26-new-homes_x.htm

The new Solomon Islands Prime Minister Snyder Rini, whose election last week triggered widespread rioting in the capital Honiara, has resigned. He announced he was quitting just before MPs were due to vote in a no-confidence motion against him. Mr Rini confidently predicted he would win the vote, but some of his key backers switched sides in recent days. His resignation was greeted with jubilation in Honiara, where people honked car horns and cheered. "People are very excited that Rini has gone [and] are looking forward to getting rid of the old leaders in the old government," 38-year-old farmer, Samson Maneka, told the Associated Press. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4945090.stm